Kevin Swindell takes 8th annual USAC Knoxville Midget Nationals
Saturday, May 30, 2009
By Bob Wilson
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (May 30) Kevin Swindell came out on top of the 8th annual USAC (United States Auto Club) Knoxville Midget Nationals at Knoxville Raceway Saturday Night. It was the youngster’s first win at this storied half-mile oval and placed his name along side that of his father’s as a winner here.
The 25-lap event saw row one starter Brad Sweet take the first two opening laps before Jerry Coons, Jr. dove low in turns three and four to take the top spot heading into lap three. While Sweet, Darren Hagen and Brad Loyet battled for the runner-up spot, Coons began to pull away. Finally Sweet broke from that pack and stayed in contact with the Coons machine.
At this point in the race, the bottom was the preferred line as it was proving to be the fastest way around the Knoxville oval. However, of the frontrunners, only Swindell took the precious time to try the top as the cushion had moved to within 8-12 feet of the tall fences.
By lap 10, Coons had built a 20 car-length lead over Sweet while staying strictly on the bottom. One lap later Swindell took third as Coons continued to pull away from the pack. Swindell moved into the runner-up spot two laps later.
With Coons comfortably in the lead, Swindell’s line was to use the top in turns 1-2 and shoot to the bottom in turns 3-4. As the laps began to run down it looked as if he was beginning to make some headway in the leader’s advantage, but the margin appeared to be insurmountable.
Lap 23 saw Swindell miraculously come to within eight car lengths of the leader. One lap later in turn three, Coons appeared to falter and Swindell dove past him to take the lead. Coons tried to make a race of it but Swindell had become too strong as he drove the Keith Kunz Motorsports Bullet across the finish line by two car lengths ahead of Coons and into victory lane. The win paid him $3,550.
Coons came across for a close second, Sweet remained in third, Hagen kept fourth and Cole Whitt finished fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Chad Boat, Brad Loyet, Brad Kuhn, Tracy Hines and Matt Smith.
In early afternoon ceremonies, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum inducted thirteen men into their Hall of Fame. 2009 inductees were Jackie Holmes, Cavino Michelli “Kelly” Petillo, Lee Elkins, Tommy Nicholson, Jac Haudenschild (Wooster, Ohio), Lee Osborne (Bluff Point, New York), Roger Rager.
Prior to the racing activities, a moment of silence was observed for Chad McDaniel (Concordia, Kansas) who died as a result of a racing accident here on the previous evening. McDaniel was killed when his midget struck the tumbling car of Davey Ray (Davenport, Iowa) in the B Main.
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